Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

BJP opposes award to Lyngdoh

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Aug. 11. The BJP has felt that the question of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies was not as debatable as the Magsaysay award to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), J.M. Lyngdoh.

Seeking to make a controversy about the award to Mr. Lyngdoh in a tit-for-tat attempt following his bitter criticism about such polls advocated by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the BJP State president, N. Indrasena Reddy, and the official spokesmen of the State party unit -- S.V. Sesghagiri Rao and K. Laxman -- said it was for the intellectuals to debate whether it was proper for Constitutional authorities as the CEC to accept international awards as they were not free from political overtones.

They felt it would be better if Mr. Lyngdoh did not accept the award in the interest of protecting the Constitutional institutions. Mr. Lyngdoh may have been selected for the award for the successful conduct of Jammu and Kashmir elections but what about earlier CECs who accomplished a similar task, they asked.

Mr. Reddy and others took exception to Mr. Lyngdoh's comment that police forces from Pakistan or Bangladesh might have to be drafted if there were to be simultaneous elections and said it was a `harsh' one.

There was no need of additional forces as neither the number of polling stations nor the voters would be higher in case of simultaneous polls. Only the strength of candidates will go up.

Mr. Reddy, complimenting the State Government for the successful conduct of the 12-day Pushkarams, said it should be an eye-opener to political parties, particularly Communists, and the Jana Vignana Vedika which undertook an adverse publicity about the threat of contagious diseases from the event.

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